Giro d'Italia Women: Marlen Reusser captures opening time trial and first race lead

Marlen Reusser (Movistar) won stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia Women, a 14.2km individual time trial in Bergamo. The Swiss ITT champion set the best time at the intermediate timing point after two thirds of the course and kept going to the finish, stopping the clock with a time of 17:22.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) could not match Reusser’s time, finishing second and third, 12 and 16 seconds slower, respectively.

“I’m very excited, and I can almost not believe that we won. It feels a little bit surreal," said Reusser in the winner’s interview.

"I was not sure how good my TT is, and it’s really a big dream of mine to win here and to wear pink. I was like, ‘oh, I’m not sure it’s good enough’, now I won, I’m super happy."

How it unfolded

The opening time trial consisted of two distinct parts. After the start at Bergamo ChorusLife, it began with a very straightforward out-and-back stretch to the intermediate timing point after 8.75km. Then the last third was far more technical with lots of corners before the race ended on the Sentierone, a broad avenue in the very centre of Bergamo.

Lauretta Hanson (Lidl-Trek) was the first rider to set a benchmark time, finishing in 18:14, but she barely made it to the hot seat before Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health) went a second faster.

Edwards’ time stood for longer, eventually beaten by Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) as the Norwegian ITT champion finished in 18:06. Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) was the first to stay below 18 minutes, taking a lot of time off the clock with 17:49.

It took a long time before anyone even remotely challenged that benchmark. German ITT champion Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) finished in 18:10, enough to take the white jersey for the best U23 rider at the end of the day.

On her return to WorldTour racing after sitting out the first half of the year with injury, Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) was six seconds slower than Henderson at the intermediate time. But the 23-year-old Dutchwoman then excelled in the technical final and finished in 17:46.

However, Nooijen never made it to the hot seat as Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) went four seconds faster again in 17:42, almost immediately afterwards. Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ) suffered a mechanical and had to change bikes, ending any hopes of a top result. Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) was a second faster than Van der Breggen at the intermediate time but lost time in the end to finish in 17:52.

By that point, Reusser had started, and she flew across the out-and-back part, setting an intermediate time that was 14 seconds faster than Schweinberger. Reusser was also the fastest through the technical last third to stop the clock after 17:22, 20 seconds better than Van der Breggen.

European ITT champion Kopecky and 2024 Giro overall winner Longo Borghini did their best to challenge Reusser, but they were four and six seconds behind at the intermediate timing point and lost more time on the way to the finish, taking second and third place on the day.

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